With the proliferation of computing and networking technologies, two aspects of computing devices have become prevalent: non-traditional (e.g., mouse and keyboard) input mechanisms and smaller form factors. User interfaces for all kinds of software applications have been designed taking typical screen sizes and input mechanisms into account. Thus, user interactions in conventional systems are presumed to be through keyboard and mouse type input devices and a minimum screen size that enables users to interact with the user interface at a particular precision.
Menus for touch-enabled or gesture-enabled devices have special constraints and challenges. For example, such menus need to be touch and gesture enabled, and accessible with less precision than a mouse. The menus may not occupy extensive screen area and need to be flexible to changes in available screen area (e.g., landscape/portrait changes, different resolutions, appearance/disappearance of a virtual keyboard, etc.). The menus needs to make use of features specific to touch devices (e.g., response to different gestures) and still work with a traditional mouse and keyboard. Users may tend to perform bursts of work on productivity applications on mobile devices—mainly read-only—not likely to be editing a long document for long hours on a mobile device. Thus, conventional menus are not geared to address this use model. They are also not comfortable and efficient in different contexts and/or positions (e.g., one finger/use of thumb/down on desk and typing). Furthermore, the command experience needs to be much richer for content creation and to provide a natural and delightful experience, which is expected with the more direct interaction that touch affords.